KMC to hold awareness drive about menstrual hygiene on May 28

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is taking up awareness on menstrual hygiene through distribution of sanitary napkins particularly in the urban slums on May 28 to mark the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day.

"We work in the area of primary healthcare that includes general diseases, tuberculosis, diabetes etc. We feel that menstrual hygiene should also be incorporated in our primary healthcare. We are starting from May 28 and we have a plan to hold a similar awareness and distribution programme once every month," Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, who heads the Health department of KMC said.

KMC has joined hands with a foundation with which MLA from Jorasanko Vivek Gupta is well acquainted with. It will be distributing 36,000 sanitary napkin packets in 144 wards of the civic body through the borough offices. The honorary health workers of the KMC will reach out to different places for the distribution. Ghosh said that KMC plans to involve the Self Help Groups in the manufacture of sanitary napkins and set up vending machines at the ward offices where sanitary napkins will be available at a nominal price.